Inserted 7th September 2013 while looking at Second World War lies.
This extract is from an unreliable online source which there seems little point giving. However the rather obvious point is that there are uncertainties about other peoples' weaponry. (At the time of writing, there are doubts over Syria, Iran, the USA, France and Britain's weaponry; for example rumours of new missiles travelling at the speed of a bullet).
Someone's World War memoirs state that an 'Operations Research' group decided anti-submarine warfare was better carried out against German submarines on the surface. This was much rarer than events where submarines were known to be in some underwater location. The new strategy (it seems) caused Germans to believe the British were, in fact, using explosives of higher power. Oddly, if the British had added powdered aluminium, their explosive would have been more powerful; but they didn't—a David Irving discovery, presumably from archival research.
As the Battle of Britain got underway the UPC's ['Underground Propaganda Committee'] work became more organised and more urgent. Their brief was to mislead the German General Staff into thinking they have to take precautions against nonexistent weapons and to circulate news to the detriment of the morale of the German invasion force. [Note: in fact there was no German invasion plan - rerev] The first anti-invasion rumours were prepared in mid-July, several of which claimed that Britain had new and decisive weapons waiting to be unleashed. One alleged weapon was a high-capacity light machine gun with a rapid rate of fire and special sights to give it great accuracy. It was particularly effective at shooting down dive-bombers, was the claim. When tested in France in one day it brought down twelve dive-bombers and the next day two more before breakfast. To help the story spread photographs of a modified BREN gun with mocked-up sights would be accidentally released to the press without comment.
A new deadly mine of terrific power specially designed for destroying several landing-craft at once was another of Britain's imaginary secret weapons. The UPC recommended that more flavour could be given to the story if photographs were released of soldiers lowering disguised manhole covers on ropes into the sea from small boats. This could be continually repeated along the coastline under Luftwaffe aerial observation. If any enemy troops were lucky enough to actually get ashore then other special mines on the beaches controlled by "secret rays" should finish them off. But if not, the trip wires armed with all sorts of lethal devices would. The "ultimate rumour" suggested that Britain had an immense number of armoured vehicles capable of charging down transport planes on the ground. The truth, however, was that there were practically no armoured vehicles of any kind. In the countryside a number of post boxes on the corner of road junctions were sealed off by the Post Office. A rumour to explain this was circulated. The post boxes have been filled with explosives and would be detonated if German troops were ever to pass through the junction. To deter parachutists, another sib contended that, overhead telegraph wires included a high-tension cable designed to electrocute any descending paratroopers unlucky enough to get caught up in them. One of the more realistic tales revealed that huge imports of Thompson submachine guns were arriving at British ports and were being despatched rapidly across the country. What these anti-invasion rumours painfully illustrate is how under-equipped and ill prepared for war the British army was in the summer of 1940.[5]
At the Underground Propaganda Committee meeting on Friday, 27 September 1940 probably the most famous and wide reaching rumour of the war was submitted. The essence of the rumour was that Britain had a secret weapon which could set the sea on fire, engulfing enemy invading barges on their cross Channel trip. The text of the actual rumour is more explicit:
The British have a new weapon. It is a mine to be dropped from aircraft. In distinction from other mines, however, it does not explode, but spreads a very thin film of highly inflammable and volatile liquid over the surface of the water for an enormous area. The mine's further action then ignites this liquid provoking a terrible flame.[6]
According to John Baker White in his autobiography of his wartime career, The Big Lie, he submitted this rumour to the UPC after a visit to St. Margaret's Bay, near Dover, on the southeast coast of England.[7] He witnessed a demonstration of a genuine anti-invasion weapon installed across the beaches ....
The point here is that there was considerable experience in faking, circulating, and assessing stories of new, devastating weapons!
Note on 'scarecrow shells' added 31 Oct 2018:
During the intensive bombing of Germany, many British and presumably American bombers must have been hit by flak. With luck, the entire store of bombs in the plane would explode, like a supernova surrounded by ordinary stars. A fictional 'scarecrow shell' was invented to cover this, in e.g. Jewish propaganda 'Newsreels' in cinemas.
During the intensive bombing of Germany, many British and presumably American bombers must have been hit by flak. With luck, the entire store of bombs in the plane would explode, like a supernova surrounded by ordinary stars. A fictional 'scarecrow shell' was invented to cover this, in e.g. Jewish propaganda 'Newsreels' in cinemas.
